Sleeping is one of the most fundamental activities that trigger bodily functions essential to the health of the body and mind. A study surrounding the topic of sleep has churned out results that suggest that an erratic sleeping schedule may lead to the development of dementia in adults beyond the age of 60.
Dementia is a disease that generally affects people falling in the age group of 60 years or older. The study conducted by a team of researchers at the University College London, and INSERM, directly associated the disease with the sleeping pattern of a person. According to the study, a persistent sleeping pattern involving sleep of six hours or less increases the chances of dementia development by 30 percent.
“Sleep problems are known to occur in people with dementia. By using a long follow-up period, we have found that short duration sleep in midlife, assessed more than 25 years before the mean age at dementia onset, is associated with dementia risk in late life,” said Dr Severine Sabia, lead author of the study. In addition, the research published in Nature Communications also found that the association of dementia and an erratic sleep schedule was independent of factors such as sociodemographic status, mental health, and heart health.
The dementia progression and the final onset of the disease is the result of the domino effect that arises from not sleeping enough or an inefficient sleep during the midlife of a person. Such cases have shown signs of dementia development when they get older.
Dementia aligns with the consequences of insufficient sleeping time, which includes reduced concentration, increased confusion, memory issues, and behavioural changes. These factors transform into indicators and then, subsequently, into the early symptoms of dementia in older people.
According to the Lancet study on the prevalence of Dementia in India, the number of dementia cases in India is going to increase exponentially by 2050. While currently, India has an estimated 5.3 million cases involving people above the age of 60, the number is projected to grow a monumental 14 million by 2050. Globally, this number is expected to grow from 57.4 million, as of 2019, to 152.8 million by 2050.
